1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein pertains to garments and particularly concerns a device and method for reducing the opening of the waist of pants, shorts or other outer garments to allow the garments to be comfortably and stylishly worn by people having a waist size smaller than the waist circumference of the garment.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Objectives of the Invention
In recent years people have become more conscious of their body weight and have increased their dieting and exercise habits in order to maintain a desirable body size and fat percentage. It is not unusual for adults to have waist measurements which vary more or less a few inches in a year. For example, many young adults put on weight during the winter months and then shed the extra pounds in the spring and summer as more rigorous physical activity is carried out. Accordingly, the waist measurement of an adult male may easily vary two to four (2-4) inches during the year without a significant different in the individual's overall appearance. Alterations to pants, dress and sport trousers are oftentimes required if the individual is to maintain a professional appearance with body weight and size fluctuations. Modifications are performed by removing the stitches from the waist, rear and crotch seams and after proper sizing, sewing new seams. Such alterations are costly and can take several days or weeks to complete at great inconvenience to the garment owner. As many suit and trouser fabric blends are suitable for year-round wear, trousers may need altering twice or more a year if the individual's weight significantly increases and decreases several times within the year.
In the past various types of adjusting belts and elastic bands have been employed to address this problem such as set forth in Posson's U.S. Pat. No. 2,663,027. Hofmann's U.S. Pat. No. 2,668,958 teaches adding an adjusting strap to trouser waists allowing the circumference to be modified. A waistband reducer is also set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,581 of Gray which includes an elastic strap. While these devices have met with some measure of success, they all generally work on the principal of reducing the circumference of the original waistband of the trousers causing unsightly "gathering" of the original waistband by an elastic inner belt or strap. This gathering generally is unattractive and is undesirable for a proper "dressed" appearance.
Therefore, with the known disadvantages and problems associated with prior art devices, it is one objective of the present invention to provide an easily attachable pants support device which decreases the waist opening of a garment for the wearer who has lost weight.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a pants support device which can be easily adjusted for a particular wearer and which can be quickly removed if a weight increase occurs.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a pants support device which can be quickly removed from one pair of pants and attached to another, thus eliminating the need of several such pairs of support devices for several garments.
It is still yet another objective of the present invention to provide a device which will allow a person to wear a particular pair of pants, even with a relatively large weight loss without detracting from the appearance of the pants since the device remains hidden along the inside of the waist and the outer configuration of the pants does not change.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art as the detailed presentation set forth below is understood.